1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communications, particularly closed environment communication, local conferencing and the use of existing voice and data messaging systems in these fields of communication.
2. Background of the Art
There are numerous personal communication systems available on the market at the present time, such as cellular phones, PDA's, WiFi laptop processors (PC and MAC), iPhones, Blackberry-based technology and the like. The technology for these systems is still being underutilized and use has focused on their primary functions and not derivative or ancillary capabilities, especially when combined with other technologies.
In conferences, meetings, and classrooms, a question and answer period allows participants to ask questions from the floor. Without amplification, others in the room often have trouble hearing the speaker. Commonly, a microphone is provided in one or more aisles or a portable microphone can be passed to a person wishing to ask a question. This can force people to maneuver their seating towards the aisles where microphone access might be more easily available, or cause some significant and disturbing activity in audiences and lead to disruption of the underlying meeting. The movement of the microphones can be tedious, slow (e.g., from one extreme corner of a room to another) and cumbersome. There can also be such significant jousting for attention as to be disconcerting to participants and lack of control of the audience.
This system also may not work because a microphone is not available, does not work well, or there is not a portable microphone handy near the speaker. Often, the speaker doesn't properly use a microphone—waving it about or dropping it too far away from his or her mouth while speaking.